1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to hard magnetic materials and a method of producing the materials with excellent magnetic performance which can be used for a motor, an actuator, a speaker, etc.
2. Description of the Related Art
Nd--Fe--B sintered magnets, Nd--Fe--B quenched magnets, etc. are generally known as magnet materials having performance superior to that of ferrite magnets, and many new alloy magnets such as Sm--Fe--N magnets and the like are investigated for attaining more excellent performance.
However, these magnet materials have the drawback that the need for at least 10 at % of Nd or at least 8 at % of Sm causes the need to use a large amount of expensive rare-earth element, and increases the production cost, as compared with ferrite magnets.
Although the ferrite magnets are lower in price than these rare-earth magnets, the ferrite magnets have insufficient magnetic characteristics.
There is thus demand for the appearance of low-cost magnet materials exhibiting more excellent hard magnetic characteristics than ferrite magnets.